Lunar Surface Navigation System

NASAs reverse-ephemeris lunar navigation system is a concept for determining position on the lunar surface based on known orbits of satellites. In conventional GPS navigation systems, the GPS satellite transmits ephemeris data to a receiver on earth for determining position at the receiver location. Whereas for the reverse-ephemeris approach the receiver becomes the transmitter, and the satellite instead serves more as a fixed reference position with a known ephemeris. This simplifies the satellite requirements and also mitigates potential navigational disruptions that can otherwise arise in navigation systems that utilize satellite-based communications, for example from interference, jamming, etc. The design consists of lunar surface S-Band (2,400 2,450 MHz) 10 W transceivers ranging with analog translating transponders on a three-satellite constellation in frozen elliptical orbits to provide continuous coverage with service to 300 simultaneous users over 1.8 MHz of bandwidth at the transponder. Digital bases systems are possible too. As compared to GPS-based navigation requiring four or more satellites costing 100s of millions of dollars, the new NASA concept is based on using only three smallsats.